Ah, Mihali! My favourite Greek singer and perfect for writing to – listening to music with English lyrics can interfere with my thought patterns, so something in a foreign language is great. Today I’d like to celebrate and share my top ten Mihalis songs, which is an extremely difficult list to whittle down (was aiming for five but I can’t do it).
Although I lived in Greece for almost a year in 2009-10, I actually didn’t know much about Mihalis back then. One of my private students told me he was her favourite popstar, but for a long time I was confused between him and Kostas Martakis (who is ridiculously good looking but musically nothing special).
It was back in England about six months later that I discovered the Hatzigiannis magic via Spotify. I’d been browsing lists of Greek artists and songs when I came across the theme tune to I Polikatoikia, ‘The Apartment Block’, a comedy I’d watched almost every day. Its catchy title song was sung by Mihalis and included on his album ‘7’, which I went on to fall in love with after many repeat listens! I bought the album, took it to Greece on holiday, listened to it several times a day and subsequently became a bit of a Mihalis addict. Watching his videos on Youtube just cemented my love. He’s ridiculously adorable, especially when he tries to dance, but the main attraction is his amazing voice. He has a whole range of song types and most of them have gorgeous melodies and lyrics that just get better the more you listen to them. The fact that he started as a Eurovision singer shouldn’t count against him…
A slight annoyance in searching for his songs is that his name can be transliterated several ways – Mihalis Hatzigiannis, Michalis Hatzigiannis or even Mixalis Xatzigiannis. Perseverance is worth it, though.
So, without further ado, here are my top ten must-listen Mihalis songs:
Kati Dinato (Something Strong) – 2013
I love the video for this. It’s very Athenian.
Catherine Queen 